Gas - Scottish Power forced entry

Cardew

brightgirl wrote: »

I couldn`t pay the full bill (£500+) therefore asked if I could pay £200 and set up a direct debit. £200 payment was taken but no chance of direct debit. Pay it all at once otherwise we`ll trash your door!

I got an email from complaint dept today. They admit that they failed to setup a direct debit 6 weeks before the warrant date even though i insisted.

There solution to big bill being paid in 2-3 months was;

• Get a warrant (additional costs to customer)
• Trash the door (additional costs to customer)
• Fit a prepayment meter and recoup the initial bill and all the additional unnecessary costs over a very long period of time!

Its a horrifying experience for me.

Your posts are not easy to follow:

Firstly you apparently went to set up a Direct Debit and they refused.

Then you say they admit they failed to set up a Direct Debit. Well isn't that what a refusal means?

From what I understand from your posts you have had a history of not settling your bills.

You had a debt of £592 and SP obtained a court warrant against you. You attempted to prevent that court action by paying £200 toward that debt, but the warrant was not rescinded.

Your landlord paid the £592 when he heard the baliffs executing the warrant - which now leaves your account £200 in credit.

Is that the position?

brightgirl

Cardew wrote: »

Your posts are not easy to follow:

Firstly you apparently went to set up a Direct Debit and they refused.

Then you say they admit they failed to set up a Direct Debit. Well isn't that what a refusal means?

From what I understand from your posts you have had a history of not settling your bills.

You had a debt of £592 and SP obtained a court warrant against you. You attempted to prevent that court action by paying £200 toward that debt, but the warrant was not rescinded.

Your landlord paid the £592 when he heard the baliffs executing the warrant - which now leaves your account £200 in credit.

Is that the position?

Sorry about my bad english. There were problems on my account with wrong billing, then the bill was a fairly high amount to pay as two bills arrived next to each other but no bills for the previous 6 months. I offered to change to direct debit and make one third payment so balance would be £592.09-£200=£392.09

I paid the £200 but again direct debit was not an option and nothing I said was considered.

Cardew wrote: »

Your landlord paid the £592 when he heard the baliffs executing the warrant - which now leaves your account £200 in credit.

Yep thats right, its now in credit but I still feel it was all avoidable. I`ve now changed suppliers. Transfer date is 22 Nov 2010 and I get £100 reward (EDF)

Cardew

brightgirl wrote: »

Yep thats right, its now in credit but I still feel it was all avoidable. I`ve now changed suppliers. Transfer date is 22 Nov 2010 and I get £100 reward (EDF)

It was certainly avoidable had you paid the full £592 instead of £200.

You presumably felt the court warrant would not be executed as you paid £200 off the £592 debt?

I would check your credit record now as the SP action will probably be recorded and it might make getting an account in future difficult.

brightgirl

Cardew wrote: »

It was certainly avoidable had you paid the full £592 instead of £200.

You presumably felt the court warrant would not be executed as you paid £200 off the £592 debt?

And if you dont have all the money? I thought it would be understandable to setup a DD for the remaining and current usage.

Cardew wrote: »

I would check your credit record now as the SP action will probably be recorded and it might make getting an account in future difficult.

Credit record will show as Satisfied but even that doesnt bother me. Its a spare house I use only when working nightshifts. All my bank, credit cards etc are registered to diff address. I`ve received another email from SP who are reviewing my complaint.

PNPSUKNET

rights of entry act gives them the right to access their meter

mattcanary

Um, you have a spare house for when you work nightshifts yet can't afford to pay £592?!!

Scottish_Power

brightgirl wrote: »

There was only one bill for £85.20, That was paid in full. After this there was also a payment of £200 therefore I was then in credit by £200.

I know what has happened here and why you think you were £200 in credit. Your online account will show you how your account stands at any given time. If your account is billed up to a certain date, i.e. 19/11/09 it will show the outstanding balance up to this point. In your case this will be an outstanding balance of £85.20.

The next action showing on the account is your payment for £85.20, which according to the information you posted was on 08/02/10. This is almost 3 months after the original bill was generated therefore I would guess that you had a number of reminder letters/emails during this period.

The next action that has been detailed is your payment for £200.00 on 22/04/10 which shows your account being in credit by £200. The only reason that the account shows a credit balance of £200.00 is that the gas charges have only been billed up to 19/11/09. To confirm what the accurate balance is at 22/04/10 you would need to bill the gas account up to this date then take the £200 payment into account.

Without actually seeing your account I am confused as to what tariff you are on. If you have an online account and you are being billed quarterly then you would have received an invoice between 19/11/09 and 22/04/10.

I am sure that our complaints team will be able to provide you with all the information you require.

Please let me know if you have any further questions and I will be happy to help.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

samtheman1k

I'm assuming that the figures in the OP are copied off her account on the SP website, and I'm also assuming that they haven't been redacted, but she may well of should of had a bill between 19/11/09 and 22/04/10 (I think you mean 17/05/10), but that clearly isn't shown on her account, thus the only conclusion that can been drawn is that no bill was sent to her, thus as far as she was aware, her account was normal (in that normal usage will be be billed). She made a £200 payment despite not getting a bill as goodwill.

Thus between being billed £690.17 on the 17/5/10 and 26/10/10, SP have carried out legal action and forced entry, despite her making part payments. 5 months Seems a bit quick to me and not 'a long time' as mentioned by the SP representative when part payments have been made, why was no payment plan agreed when the DD failed to be set up and her making several attempts to do so? Seems like very heavy handed techniques by SP to me given that it is partly their fault for missing sending out a bill.

Of course, it's not clear whether the forced entry was made before or after the 26/10/10 when the LL paid the bill.

KimYeovil

samtheman1k wrote: »

5 months Seems a bit quick to me and not 'a long time'

Quick? That is four months longer than reasonable. Seems very generous. The bailiffs should be round four days after the bill is due, not four months.

Well done, Scottish Power. The more people who end up with £800 repair bills the more likely scoundrel consumers will stop taking the proverbial.

Any bill should be paid within seven days of receipt. Penalties and 'heavy-handedness' should commence (precipitously) after one month.

samtheman1k

My point was that forced entry should only be a last resort. The OP has made payments and tried to set up a repayment plan, but seems to of fallen on deaf ears and treated as unacceptable by SP. Surely late payment is better than no payment?

SP seemed to of preferred the heavy handed approach...but I get the impression that all the facts aren't being presented, so can't really be completely impartial.